2013-12-07 [ ][ ] TM expects 10% hike in revenue from tie-up with Microsoft

source: [thestar online]

TM expects 10% hike in revenue from tie-up with Microsoft

For the SMEs: TM SME sales vice- president Khaidhir Elias (left), Azizi and SME GM Suzana Salleh at the media briefing on SME BizFest 2013 themed ‘Expanding Further’ recently.

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) expects to see a 10% increase in revenue from its product UniFi with Microsoft Office 365, a collaboration with the eponymous software and hardware developer.

Currently, TM has over 102,100 customers for its existing Office in a Box package and from this figure, 4,700 customers have subscribed to the Office in a Box withMicrosoft Office 365 package.

Although last December it targeted to reach 23,000 new subscribers for the new bundle, which was launched in October 2012, TM views this positively as there were customer upgrades from the Business Broadband to UniFi.

“We will continue to aggressively promote TM products and solutions in our efforts to empower Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through greater efficiencies,” TM SME executive vice-chairman Azizi A. Hadi tells StarBizWeek.

Essentially, the new package offered to SMEs include Office Web Apps, E-mail and Calendars, file sharing, managing projects and instant messaging as well as Presence & Conferencing, a video conferencing software, among ancillary peripherals.

Up the value chain

Azizi says the whole point of the deal is to assist SMEs move up the value chain via information and communications technology (ICT) solutions, and ultimately, to lower their operational expenditure and capital investment, and help increase profitability.

“This is a very good deal as for any purchase of Microsoft Office 365 ID outside of this TM package will be charged in US dollar using the current rate. For ala carte purchases of the Microsoft Office 365 ID via TM’s BizApp Store, customers will be billed in local currency and it is fixed at RM21 per user ID,” he says.

As of September 2013, there were more than 505,200 SMEs nationwide subscribing to TM products and services.

The communications provider will continue to explore initiatives that enhance the SME sector, including collaborations with key industry players such as property developers to reach out to SME communities.

“In our effort to expand high speed broadband (HSBB) service beyond the public private partnership (PPP) with the Government of Malaysia, we also embarked on the Smart Partnership programme with local property developers nationwide for TM to deploy and provision our HSBB network infrastructure and services to new residential and commercial developments,” Azizi says.

Infrastructure provider

To date, TM has signed on over 18,000 residential and commercial property units, where the communications company acts as the network infrastructure provider for their new housing developments.

“Such collaborations will help increase the usage of high speed broadband among Malaysians, and with the establishment of HSBB-equipped housing cities, it hopes to boost ICT adoption towards achieving the household broadband penetration target of 75% by end-2015, as outlined in the National Broadband Plan,” he adds.

Moving forward, TM is looking out for more collaborations to boost the penetration and growth of SMEs in the country and abroad.

Current collaborative partners include the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, SME Corp and the Multimedia Development Corp, where products, services, programmes and events are put together for the SME community.

“We will be announcing more partnerships with other corporations in the near future,” Azizi says.

According to TM, micro and small enterprises contribute up to 97% of the total SME establishments in the country.

However, most are unaware of the benefits of ICT and how it can be leveraged upon to further enhance their business operations.

“Business customers need a higher level of understanding of the package before making the decision as it will greatly affect their business operations. That is why we continuously organise on-ground events such as BizFest, BizBrigade abd BizFiesta to provide them with better understanding of the products and services as well as gain their acceptance and trust in our UniFi service,” Azizi says. “We have a comprehensive suit of more than 40 innovative ICT products and services designed to increase productivity and operational efficiencies.”